Au Kar-Wai in the U.S.A., Part 1

Au Kar-wai a few days after her arrival in New York

On November 6, 1958 Shaw Brothers' Cantonese star Pearl Au Kar Wai arrived in New York City to prepare for her role in Otto Preminger's never completed The Other Side of the Coin. The director of such classics as Laura (1944), The Man with the Golden Arm (1956), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and Exodus (1960), Preminger was known for tackling controversial subjects and challenging film censorship, and The Other Side of the Coin fit squarely with his penchant for presenting topical, polarizing issues in an objective manner that precluded easy judgments about right and wrong.

The film was going to be an adaptation of the just published novel by Pierre Boulle, author of The Bridge Over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes. Set in British Malaya during the Malayan Emergency (the guerrilla war for independence waged by the Malayan Communist Party), The Other Side of the Coin is a terse satire of colonialism and Cold War politics. The book condescendingly observes what happens when the Pollyanna-ish American wife of a French rubber plantation manager decides to adopt and reform a young female Chinese rebel.

Preminger was quite serious about the project — and had even traveled to Kuala Lumpur in May 1958 to get permission from the Malaysian government and to scout for locations — but for a variety of reasons the production never got off the ground. It was probably a good thing that Au Kar-wai never made her Hollywood debut. Playing a communist rebel very likely could have ended her career in Hong Kong. Still, it would have been great to see her appear in a film by Otto Preminger.

Au Kar-wai appears to have stayed in New York until at least March, 1959 before returning to Hong Kong to continue her work at Shaw Brothers. Here are a few items concerning her U.S. sojourn, starting off with this article from the New York Times.

Au Kar Wai, who is obviously thousands of miles from her Hong Kong home, is quite at home in New York, too. The dark-haired, lissome 19-year-old Chinese actress, who was brought here the other day by director Otto Preminger to learn colloquial English for her role in the adaptation of Pierre Boulle's "The Other Side of the Coin," also could play the lead in a hypothetical film titled "A Chinese Girl in New York."

There was a wealth of movie material in her description of her first bewildering day at the Berlitz School for Languages. "I was the only Chinese girl," she said. There was also her first view of the Manhattan skyline — "nothing so beautiful, so much colors!" Her first, and last, subway excursion — "not good. Many people, coming and going at once." And, some homey fare when she was reunited with "auntie," a former Hong Kong actress, and other relatives who have settled in Chinatown.

How did Au Kar Wai get involved? Mr. Preminger had seen footage from six Chinese films she had made and "he called me and ask if I can help him make picture but I tell him sadly I know no English. He said, 'never mind, I will find someone to teach you.'" So, Miss Au Kar Wai will be here until she masters the language, undoubtedly adding "scenes" to "A Chinese Girl in New York."

—"By Way of Report" by A.H. Weiler, New York Times, November 30, 1958

Here is a picture (from the March, 1959 issue of International Screen) that shows Au Kar-wai standing besides Helen Li Mei, who was in the U.S. at the time on a four-month tour. Sitting next to Li Mei is veteran Cantonese actress Siu Yin Fei, who had recently retired and moved to New York. Hmm... was Siu the "auntie" referred to in the New York Times article? A few years later Siu produced and starred in Murder Case in Chinatown (1961), a true-crime story set and partially shot in New York Chinatown. The director of the American scenes was none other than Esther Eng, the pioneering Chinese American filmmaker who owned and managed a restaurant in New York at the time this photo was taken. She often played host to visiting Chinese actors.

Finally, let me end on a Hollywood note by quoting New York gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen's March 10, 1959 report that "Cary Grant captured most of the attention at Otto Preminger's recent party by monopolizing an adorable little Chinese girl, Au Kar Wai, who just arrived in Hollywood for 'The Other Side of the Coin.'" I'll have a little more to share about the two of them later...